After nearly 40 years of thrashing, Megadeth show no signs of slowing down with their new speed-metal single “Soldier On!,” the latest track off the heavy metal band’s upcoming LP The Sick, The Dying…And The Dead!
Dave Mustaine said of the new track in a statement, “Coming to the realization that you need to walk away from a relationship that’s very toxic, and how hard it can be to start down that road. But you know you need to, and just taking that first step is the hardest part. Whatever your leaving does to them, you have to block that part out, stay the course and do what’s right for you. It will be hard in the beginning, but you have got to live for yourself to be worth a damn to anyone else. You’ve got to Soldier On!”
Resiliency is a theme of the band’s upcoming 16th studio album. “I have spent enough of my life watching our fans struggle, and my heart just bleeds for them,” Mustaine recently told Rolling Stone. “And I watch how our opportunities become less and less. And to think that that’s based on the music that appeals to you is just fundamentally wrong. I try and take a lot of those things into consideration and sing about them, and in a way that will present the yin and the yang of the situation.”
While Mustaine didn’t elaborate on any specific toxic relationship that forms the basis of “Soldier On!,” the single arrives just days after former bassist David Ellefson discussed his dismissal from the group following allegations of sexual impropriety, a firing that Megadeth previously said was the culmination “an already strained relationship, what has already been revealed now is enough to make working together impossible moving forward.” The band soldiered on without their founding bassist, as Ellefson’s playing on The Sick, The Dying…And The Dead! was eventually re-recorded.
Megadeth have previously shared “We’ll Be Back” and the Ice-T-featuring “Night Stalkers” from The Sick, The Dying…And The Dead!, due out Sept. 12